my thanks to all who have shared their ideas about intro textbooks--and especially to jason mittell for calling my attention to chris cagle's remarkably helpful blog post comparing all the leading texts, a resource that anyone thinking about this question would do well to use . . . the web address is: http://categoryd.blogspot.com/2006/11/intro-textbook-comparison.html but jason's post includes a distinction that seems to me perhaps worth pursuing on list . . . he writes that if understanding the formal system of film, is the goal of the course then FILM ART is probably the best option [but] If [the goals is] introducing a broader range of theoretical approaches to film, Corrigan & White's FILM EXPERIENCE is excellent. . . .and what i find somewhere between fascinating and troubling is the implied distinction between "formal system" and "theoretical approach" . . . i of course recognize how much contemporary thinking about cinema is concerned mainly with what for convenience i'll call its ideological work, and recognize too that such work may exceed the frames of reference provided by conventional mise-en-scene or montage analysis but -- and it's a big BUT -- shouldn't an intro to cinema course focus not merely on the ideological content as such that gets inscribed in cinema but on the way the "formal system" of cinema is used for ideological ends? . . . put somewhat differently, shouldn't a truly cinematic "theoretical approach" also be at the very same time an inquiry into the "formal system" of film? . . . critics ranging from bazin to mulvey have explored the ways in which formal systems are used for cultural or philosophical or ideological purposes -- and i would imagine that an analysis of the way the formal properties of the moving image are deployed for larger cultural purposes should be at the center of any theoretical approach to film . . . so -- the question -- does the distinction jason makes serve us well or does it serve us badly? mike ---- For past messages, visit the Screen-L Archives: http://bama.ua.edu/archives/screen-l.html